A true wildlife rehabilitator can make you feel sorry for a boa constrictor.
Peachtree City's Connie Haynes is like that. Not only does she care about "Pugsley" the
boa, but for all the other little critters that
pass through her super-warm "animal room." It's
not a sentimental care, however, but a very
practical one.
Haynes, who has a degree in zoology from North Carolina State University, holds
several different types of licenses for wildlife
rehabilitation. The Georgia Department of Natural
Resources (DNR) issues licenses for many categories of animals, she said, and she is approved
for work with small animals, migratory birds and reptiles. Haynes also has a federal license to rehabilitate certain songbirds.
She has an exhibitor's license that allows her to show "non-releasable" animals through her business, Nature Corners.
"It's unusual," she says, "to hold both licenses, and I think that DNR doesn't issue both to the same person anymore. There's a danger that animals who need to be returned to the wild would be exploited. None of those that we know can return to their habitats are ever shown to classes or any other groups."
Haynes is qualified for, but doesn't handle, birds of prey or "carnivores" that are susceptible to rabies, she said, because of the constraints of living in a subdivision and not having the room it would take to return a hawk or an eagle to full flight and function. When her children were smaller, she added, she
would not even take the larger constrictor snakes or poisonous vipers.
But Becca is 15 now, and Caitlin is 10, and both girls help with the animal feeding and care. Caitlin is full of information about the different species of snakes, lizards and turtles, and seems to understand euthanasia of non-endangered animals when they can't be saved.
Haynes says she feels that her approach to rehabilitation is more scientific than altruistic. For instance, she said, she recently had to euthanize a squirrel whose teeth were malformed and could not be corrected without at least $2,000 worth of surgery.
"You have to look at what's best for the [animal] population," she said. "The squirrel population is not hurting, and this animal likely had bad genes. Now, a sandhill crane ... maybe the surgery would be worth it, because of the condition of that species."
All rehabilitators are required to be supervised by a veterinarian; Haynes works with Dr. Mimi Shepherd of Atlanta, a specialist in exotic animals. Haynes also is required to "keep meticulous records where the animal was found, who brought it in, when, and so forth ... I also have to make an annual report to DNR."
Haynes says she is fortunate to be able to have her business, because she gets no income at all from being a rehabilitator. There have been times, she said, when the animals' food "came out of the grocery money, too."
For the little girl who grew up wanting to be a zookeeper, Haynes' job is ideal. After working for LaFayette Zoological Park in Norfolk, Va., and at the Atlanta Zoo, she is now able to care for animals and still be home for her family. The animal room is presently occupied by the boa, a speckled king snake,
garter snake, black rat snake, two box turtles and a tokay gecko.
She explained that the boa and gecko are not U.S. natives and may be part of a burgeoning pet trade, "either smuggled or legal.
"A lot of people simply don't understand the problems of exotic pets," she continued. "That's why we find them out roaming, and usually hurt. That gecko, for instance, isn't very big, but his jaws have a tremendous crushing power. He won't let go. If you let him loose in your house to eat bugs, which many
people do, he will find dark places to hide in. Then your child may reach into a corner for something, and the bite can be horribly painful or disfiguring."
Snakes may be particularly abused by drug smugglers, she said, who use the poisonous ones to "discourage" inspections of shipping crates. Haynes said that animal rights activists and customs people also are discovering that the snakes may be force-fed drugs in plastic bags; upon arrival here, the snakes are
generally killed and split open to retrieve the packages. She suspects that Pugsley the boa just got to be too much trouble for his owner.
"He was found on the street in Atlanta, so covered with oil and grease and dirt that he had to be washed repeatedly," she said. Because of the effects of the pollutants, Pugsley's skull peeks through the top of his head.
"It's beginning to cover over, but we really don't know whether he will recover fully." Haynes can be reached at 770-486-0192.
